Retracing the Steps
by alluringmelodies
Summary: Waking up in a room alone isn't scary, but it becomes scary when you don't have any inkling as to who you are. But with some help from strangers, you'll find out who you are, eventually.
1. Chapter 1

It's completely normal to wake up in a room, in a _very_ comfortable bed, all by yourself. But what isn't normal is the fact that you have no recollection as to who you are, or where you are, or why you're here.

By the time I woke up, the sun was already high up in the sky, already working its duty of providing light for all the biotic species. I looked around the room, wondering where the hell I was at and why I was here in the first place.

"Hello?" I called out, hearing my voice echoing in the room.

No response.

I decided that it was better to walk around the room to find out information rather than sit in bed all day.

For the first time, I noticed that all I had on was a white shirt and blue shorts. I walked over to the window, thinking that I would see nature at its finest. What I didn't expect to see was the fact that I was 180 feet above from whatever nature would offer me.

I let out a shriek.

I took voluntary deep breaths to calm myself down and sat back down on the bed. Only then did I notice the intricate carving on the nightstand.

_Imai Hotel. _

So this was a hotel, huh.

I narrowed my eyes at the nightstand, wondering if it had anything else to give me.

I opened its drawers tentatively only to find a piece of paper with scrawls on it and a cellular device.

I picked up the paper delicately and squinted at the messy scrawls.

_Mikan Sakura. _

Is that a name? More importantly, is that _my _name, I wondered.

Turning my attention to the cell phone next, I flipped it open and even though I don't remember learning how to use a cell phone, I was already fumbling my way through the phone, in hopes of finding more information that would benefit me.

I tumbled to the 'Contacts' screen, but there was only one phone number registered.

_(423)567-8904 _

I had no idea who this numbered belonged to, but it was worth a shot to call the person either way.

After pressing the call button and waiting for the call to go through, an icy female voice responded.

"Hello?" she clipped.

"Um, hello." I muttered.

The lady on the line sighed into the phone and grumbled, "Honestly, how many times do I need to change my number so that telemarketers won't get a hold of me-"

"Wait, no! I'm not a telemarketer!" I exclaimed.

"Then who are you?" she questioned.

"I… I am…" I stuttered, raking my brain to give a response until my eyes landed on the piece of paper.

"I am Mikan Sakura…?" I answered questionably.

"Mikan Sakura?" She repeated, "I do not know a person that goes by that name, therefore you are wasting my time."

"Wait! Please don't hang up." I said exasperatedly, "I don't know who I am, and I woke up this morning in a hotel named Imai Hotel and in the nightstand was a piece of paper with 'Mikan Sakura' written on it and a cell phone with only one number in it, which was this number"

I must have spoken at a speed of a mile a minute because by the time I finished, I was out of breath.

There was silence on the other line; it was so silent that I thought the other person had already hung up.

"What room are you in?" she said abruptly.

"Pardon?"

"The room number. There should be a room number. Go to the door and look at the number, and tell me." She explained, not so patiently.

I walked over to the door, "478." I stated.

"I see." She mulled, "I will be there soon."

"Wait, who _are _you?"

Even without knowing who she was, I could feel the smirk in her answer as she said, "I am the owner of the Imai Hotel, otherwise known as Hotaru Imai. And it seems like we will be spending a lot of time together the next couple of days."

Click.

I looked at the phone screen.

_Phone call ended._

I wasn't sure of what was happening or why I couldn't remember anything, but I will find out eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

Precisely 10 minutes after the phone call, I heard 3 short knocks on the door.

While standing on the tip of my toes to peer through the peephole the door had to offer, I saw a woman standing there holding devices in her arms while looking annoyed.

I cracked the door open slightly and the woman barged in without any warning.

"I take it you're Mikan Sakura?" the woman asked while placing her devices on the bed.

I nodded, "And you're Hotaru Imai?"

"Correct." She said as she began pacing around the room, "Now Ms. Sakura, I will have to tell you some rules about being affiliated with me before we get started."

I raised my eyebrows as she began.

"One. I detest people who waste my time, thus I become very unpleasant to be with when you are late on any occasion where I am involved with.

Two. My belongings are mine, and no one is granted permission to leave their dirty fingerprints on my belongings." She said as my hand hovered 3 inches above her devices.

I quickly lifted my hand away and she nodded in approval before continuing, "Three. I don't appreciate those that lie to me. Liars get nowhere in life, I hope you try your best to remember that, Ms. Sakura."

I nodded my head, "Of course."

"If you can manage to remember those three rules then I am sure we will be able to get somewhere in this…" She waved her hand indicating the distance between us.

"Friendship?" I suggested hopefully.

The corners of her lips twitched slightly, "Not quite."

She walked over to the bed and turned on a switch of one of the devices.

"When you called me earlier, you said you had no recollection of your memories." She stated.

"Correct."

"Why can you not remember?"

"I don't know."

"Where did you come from?"

"I don't know."

"Why are you here?"

"I don't know."

"Who are you?"

"…I don't know."

She looked at the device and pressed some more buttons before speaking again.

"Well, it seems as if you are working very hard on following rule three of mine for you did not lie, otherwise this Polygraph machine would have picked it up."

"You tested whether I was lying or not?" I asked, unsure of whether to feel upset or impressed.

"Neither I nor the computers had any knowledge of you so I had to make sure you weren't trying to scam me in this room or something." She clarified without a hint of guilt.

"Fair enough."

She sat down on the bed and pulled out her cell phone and started typing something.

"Um, Hotaru?" I called out.

No response.

"Hotaru?"

"Ms. Sakura, I assure you that I am not deaf, just continue with what you were planning to say." She said, without even lifting her eyes from the screen.

"Why can't I remember anything?"

It was then did she look up.

"You are probably from Okinawa, considering you have a different Japanese dialect than the other people around here."

"And where is this 'around here'?"

"Tokyo."

"How can you tell that I might be from Okinawa?" I asked.

"Because I was from Okinawa." She said simply.

My mouth gaped open slightly.

"What else can you tell about me?" I asked eagerly.

She eyed me carefully, "I'm guessing that you are around my age, twenty-one years old, maybe a bit younger though…I'll have to have Subaru do a specialized investigation." She murmured the last part to herself.

I gazed at her appreciatively, "How can you realize all of these things?"

"I'm an inventor. I have to be perceptive towards everything."

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"No." she said, and as if noticing my crestfallen facial expression, "Which is why more means of information will be coming within the next couple minutes."

"More means of information?" I repeated, but I received no explanation.

But true to her words, in a few minutes there were short, repetitive raps on the door.

She went and opened the door, "Rule three." She said plainly.

"Hotaru, we've known each other for years, those rules don't apply to us anymore."

Hotaru mumbled slightly but I couldn't hear her that way, something about rules are always important.

There were now two girls in the room, one with pink hair and the other with blue.

"So why did you call us here, Ruru?" The girl with the pink hair said.

Hotaru narrowed her eyes at her, "I've told you not to call me that many times, Anna, will you ever listen?"

"Never." She grinned.

Hotaru sighed and cocked her head towards me, "Her name might be Mikan Sakura, and she doesn't remember anything."

And for the first time, the two girls settled their attention on me.

"Might be?" the girl with blue hair repeated.

"Like I said, she doesn't remember anything."

The girl with pink hair walked over to me and extended an arm out to me, "My name is Anna, it's nice to meet you Mikan." She said as she gave me the brightest smile, ever.

"And I am Nonoko." The girl with blue hair explained with a kind smile, "If you haven't noticed our similarities by now, Anna and I are sisters."

I smiled and nodded. Seeing how friendly the two sisters were made me feel comfortable and not out of place, but what puzzled me was the fact that they were friends with someone so cold and calculating.

"Where are the rest of the people?" Hotaru asked.

"Who?" the sisters responded in unison.

"The usuals."

"Maybe they're busy." Nonoko answered as Anna replied with a snicker, "They're breaking rule three."

Hotaru rolled her eyes.

A few seconds later the door slammed open which revealed a very flustered blonde man.

"Hotaru!" he exclaimed as he walked into the room, dropping his white coat on the nearby chair, "The animals wouldn't just let me leave, and I was-"

"Late." Hotaru finished for him.

"Busy. I was _busy._" He clarified before pecking her offered cheek.

I must have looked shocked because Anna whispered, "They've known each other since pre-teen years and they've been dating for the past 4 years."

I nodded, "How sweet."

Once hearing my voice, the blonde man turned towards me and looked at me with a quizzical expression before smiling at me.

"Hello there. Please excuse me for not introducing myself immediately. My name is Ruka Nogi, pleased to meet you, Ms…?"

"Mikan Sakura?" I offered.

He chuckled, "And why do you sound so unsure?"

"For pete's sake, this is why I told everyone to be prompt and not late." Hotaru grumbled before explaining to Ruka, "She doesn't remember her memories but for some reason she woke up this morning in this room with a piece of paper that had 'Mikan Sakura' written on it and a cell phone with only my number on it." She finished with a slight scowl as if I planned for this to happen.

"Where's the phone?" Nonoko piped up.

"On the nightstand." I said.

She walked over and picked up the phone gingerly before examining it.

She squinted her eyes before they suddenly widened.

"Hotaru," she began, "Remember that time when some of your prototypes of I-478 were taken?"

Hotaru raised her eyebrows, "That was over a year ago."

"I think I just found a prototype."


End file.
